An Indian cricketer has been arrested by the Sports Anti Corruption Unit of Sri Lanka. This case pertains to the Lanka Premier League (LPL), in which former India Under-19 cricketer Manjot Kalra is the co-owner of the Jaffna Kings franchise. He was accused of bribing a player. Manjot Kalra’s arrest came just before the start of the next season of the Lanka Premier League. LPL 2026 season is starting from today i.e. 17th July.
A Special Investigation Unit was formed to curb sports related crimes. This unit presented Manjot before the magistrate.
Sri Lankan Police say that 27-year-old Manjot tried to bribe the player about 10 days before the start of the Lanka Premier League season. The so-called player informed the higher authorities about this, after which the investigation started and the Indian cricketer was arrested on Friday.
Police said that a complaint in this case was lodged by cricketers Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Avishka Fernando and Dunith Velalage, who are part of the Jaffna Kings squad in the Lanka Premier League. This is not the first time that the game of cricket has been tainted due to the Lanka Premier League. In the same year, the owner of another franchise tried to involve a player in match fixing, after which he was banned for 4 years.
Talking about Manjot Kalra, he has scored a century for Team India in the final of Under-19 World Cup. He scored an unbeaten 101 runs against Australia in the final of the 2018 Under-19 World Cup. This was the same World Cup in which Shubman Gill and Prithvi Shaw also represented Team India.